The Regional District of Central Kootenay is calling on the province to make the newspaper industry join a provincial recycling stewardship program. However, an industry executive says if they are forced to pay proposed fees, a number of papers would have to shut down to meet the costs.

“We simply can not afford the millions of dollars this would cost the newspaper industry,” John Hinds, the CEO of Newspapers Canada, an industry group, told the Star. “It would put a significant number of newspapers at risk if we were forced to pay the Multi-Material BC (MMBC) fees as they stand. Look at what happened in Nanaimo and Kamloops [where newspapers recently closed]. Look at what is happening around the country.”